The pre-Covid health and wellbeing agenda has only been accelerated
We have spent the past year worrying about our own health and the health of our loved ones. Our social interactions – crucial to combatting loneliness – have been few and far between. And our wellbeing efforts have been diverted by increased screen time. Despite making serious headway on the corporate agenda pre-pandemic, Covid-19 has seen businesses re-prioritise the health and wellbeing of their staff.
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We interviewed almost 400 global business leaders to understand how they’re adapting their real estate strategies for the years to come. The below insights are based upon their responses. To discover the data behind the story, get the full picture in (Y)OUR SPACE.
Before the pandemic, businesses were increasingly supporting the physical wellbeing of their employees – most notably through the use of benefits programmes, office spaces, and health initiatives (be it cycle to work schemes, on-site yoga classes, free fruit or gym discounts).
For some businesses, these were used to attract top talent, but for others, it was born from a genuine understanding of the cost involved in getting it wrong; wellbeing initiatives have always been an effective way of reducing the operational cost of ill health.
Beyond the obvious tragedy of mental ill health, the business cost is grave, too. In April 2020, the World Bank Group cited that depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy an estimated US$1 trillion per annum in lost productivity. Plus, research published by the HSE, Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety, found that the prevalence of work-related stress, depression and anxiety has increased in recent years, and between 2019 to 2020, it accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health cases.
Businesses are beginning to recognise the value of a healthy and happy workforce. Pre-pandemic, for example, Morgan Stanley appointed a new type of CMO – not a Chief Marketing Officer, but a Chief Medical Officer in an attempt to “foster innovation in employee wellness and healthcare coverage”, while HR data was set to “address rising healthcare costs”.
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Likewise, Mercer’s 2020 Global Talent Trends report (again, pre-pandemic), revealed that 48% of the C-suite executives surveyed were concerned about supporting employee’s health and wellbeing – which made it the poll’s top-ranked workforce concern.
One in four of us are likely to experience mental illness during our working lives. Considering the turmoil of the past year, it won’t come as a surprise to know that mental health issues worsened across all age groups from 2019 to 2020. According to figures published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the largest year on year rise occurred in 16 to 39-year-olds. In 2019, 10.9% of the age group showed signs of depression (from moderate to severe). But in 2020, the figure almost tripled to 31%.
In fact, in the two weeks preceding May 7th 2020, UK charity Mind found that nearly 25% of people who tried to seek mental health help couldn’t amid cancelled appointments, difficulties with online alternatives, and issues reaching their GPs.
Indeed, against a backdrop of a health-related chaos – which was paired with the loneliness and the cabin fever induced by enforced remote working, health and wellbeing has undoubtedly climbed the corporate agenda. It has had to. And the role of the office in fulfilling that goal has become more widely recognised.
We witnessed this first-hand: Employee wellbeing has risen up the list of strategic agenda items that the office can support or facilitate according to our survey. Employee wellbeing was the 3rd highest strategic issue identified by our respondents in 2021 (37% citing it directly), placing it two places higher compared to our 2018 survey – when the issue came in at 5th place.
On the ground, this prioritisation has seen a host of online therapy apps entering the global market – particularly in the US – ready to meet the unmet demand for ongoing, turnkey mental health solutions.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently announced a telehealth support service – Amazon Care – for both its employees and now, increasingly, for the staff of other companies. AstraZeneca Singapore also now provides its employees with mental health support via an online platform, alongside counselling sessions.
This is not a purely philanthropic endeavour. It is an effective way of reducing the financial and operational burden caused by absenteeism or high staff turnover.
On top of this, the newfound criticality of health and safety cannot be understated. The rise of the ‘Covid-secure workplace’, a term first coined in August 2020 by the UK Government, has seen businesses re-configure their workplaces to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 infections. But our survey shows that only 14% of businesses believe it is their sole responsibility to make the future workplace safer.
And expectations for safety are incredibly high – as they should be. Regular building cleaning, fewer physical touch-points and increased maintenance of air-conditioning systems were cited as the most popular interventions being sought from building owners. On top of this, technology is likely to be used to support the monitoring and consistent delivery of a safe workplace, with workplace sensors aiding track and trace initiatives.
To explore what the future of work means for your business and understand how you can optimise your real estate strategy, step into (Y)OUR SPACE, or get in touch with a member of our team.
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